“Lacy told analysts the publisher spends about $150 million annually on paper, $80 million in printing costs and $80 million for mailing. If audience migration to an e-reader allows 20% of that $310 million to be trimmed, ‘that could really be meaningful to us from a financial point of view.’ “Read more

In a May survey of 3,000 people, ChangeWave found 20 percent of respondents somewhat or very likely to purchase an iPad, up from 13 percent in February. And of the 245 current owners of e-readers, the survey found 18 percent reading newspapers and 14 percent reading magazines. Both are increases of 7 percentage points over the pre-iPad survey results. The researchers attribute that increase almost entirely to the iPad, as 50 percent of iPad owners reported reading a newspaper on the device, compared to only 14 percent for owners of other e-readers.

“Mingchi Kuo, a senior analyst at DigiTimes, noted that e-book reader manufacturers shipped more units of the Nook to Barnes & Noble than Kindles to Amazon last month. Kuo suggested that the Nook accounted for 53 percent of e-book readers shipped to U.S. vendors in March, 2010. … In the meantime, Apple sold 500,000 iPads in the first week of sales and is estimated to have broken the 1 million mark.”

A DigiTimes study of the market estimates 1.43 million e-readers were sold in the first quarter of 2010, not including the iPad. Read more

“Until now, Amazon has sold the various models of its e-reader only through its own site, eschewing the retail option while competitor Sony went the in-store route (it has been in Target since 2008) and as Barnes & Noble launched the Nook through its own stores. That’s not enough in today’s competitive e-reader world where every other major option already shipping can be found in stores and the more-glamorous iPad can be fondled at Apple stores and many Best Buys.” Read more

The Android-based e-reader supports the common ePub electronic book format as well as HTML and PDF. The device has two screens: one 6-inch electronic ink display for reading text and a smaller 3-inch color touch screen for navigation and other functions. The tablet retails for $399 and “offers full Internet browsing using WiFi connectivity, and later this year will also feature 3G and EVDO/CDMA connectivity.”

Poynter Online NewsPayBill Mitchell was one of a handful of Poynter staffers who spent their day off in the office on Saturday poring over the new toy tool du jour: Apple’s iPad. In the NewsPay blog, Mitchell shared some of his first impressions of the device, namely he is keeping his Kindle and is not yet ready to pay for the New York Times in app form.

There are only about 100 apps in the iPad news category so far, and many of them are aggregators, feed readers or social networks. Two dozen, more or less, are from major media outlets. Buchanan provides some early feedback from among that list:

New York Times Editor’s ChoiceThe app is “…kind of limited but the NYT plans to ‘keep refining and upgrading the application,’ so expect it to get richer over time. For now though, it’s free and ad-supported.”

The Wall Street Journal“The Wall Street Journal iPad might in fact be the best of breed now, at least in terms of delivering the full content of the newspaper.”

NPR“One of the busier news apps, navigation is dominated by sliding ‘tapes’ for topics like news, or arts & life. Read more

The app is a free download and includes a handful of free books. But access to both new and archive editions require a $1.99 in-app payment. Jared Newman at PC World spoke to comic fans and comic store owners in a dialogue that mirrors the ongoing debate between newspaper readers and publishers:

” ‘I can get back issues from my local shop for $1,’ wrote IanX on iFanboy.com. ‘Why would I pay $2 to get them online?’ Other commenters said comics should cost less when there’s no distribution or paper cost involved. Read more

It is probably no coincidence that Amazon’s Kindle app for the iPad was released to the iTunes store yesterday, making the Times mobile site, desktop Web site and Kindle edition competing products on the iPad. This week’s alignment of prices points strongly to the New York Times full iPad app being released at the same price point in the near future.Read more